Freaks and Geeks

This may be the first TV show since Pee-wee's Playhouse to treasure youth even as it embodies all of its contradictions, craziness, hopes, and fears (and I'd like to point out that Freaks is the only hour-long sitcom I've ever seen that sustains funniness for its full 60 minutes).

The new fall season's best show...Here's how good: It will make you like a Styx song. Yes. It may even make you love it. It will definitely make you hum Come Sail Away, that awful anthem from one of corporate rock's biggest hack acts. Why? Because it is the dead solid perfect choice for the first episode's closing scene, a scene so painfully perfect you'll wish you were 16 again. [25 Sept 1999, p.1D]

A frisky little triumph of real spirit and a collaboration between creator-writer-supervising producer Paul Feig ("Life Sold Separately") and executive producer Judd Apatow ("The Larry Sanders Show"). You'll feel better about yourself, and television - if only you'll stay home on Saturdays to watch it. [25 Sept 1999, p.53]

It is, with only a couple of exceptions, sharply observed, poignant and original, and even worthy of getting the family together to watch. [24 Sept 1999, p.Tempo 3]

In its own affectionate way, Freaks and Geeks puts a pimple into the TV-ized approach to adolescence. This delightfully observed 1980s-set dramedy is high school as many of us remember it, with Twinkie-pounding bullies and Army-jacket wearing druggies and pale nerds with speech impediments and "Star Trek" fixations. It's high school unplugged, a sort of "Dazed and Confused" for the small screen, and it is one of the fall season's most likable new shows. That NBC has thrown "Freaks and Geeks" into the wilds of Saturday night - it premieres tonight at 8 on Ch. 7 - is only further evidence of network nitwitness. [25 Sept 1999, p.C1]

Freaks and Geeks is tapping into something primal: adolescents' hunger to begin to understand themselves and their world. Freaks and Geeks is too honest to offer answers. But it affirms the value and the universality of asking the questions. [24 Sept 1999, p.140]

Color me confused on the concept. Are 20-somethings supposed to like this show? Good luck with those archaic pop culture references (Molly Hatchet, Carter/Mondale). Teen-agers? Sure - let them see that high school was just as vicious 20 years ago...Freaks and Geeks recalls a time a lot of viewers would rather forget. [25 Sept 1999, p.E1]